NL EAST!!!!

Tatting Blog Candy!

LadyShuttleMaker is having a blog candy bonanza. Just click on the picture to get to the post where you can sign up for this week's drawing!

What did *I* do?

Yeah, I'm home. :(

So, what would you do?

AND, that pretty much sums up the dilemma!

Am I vertical? Sometimes.
Can I stay vertical for the hours required at school tomorrow? HIGHLY unlikely.
Do I have Swine flu? I don't know. For the first 48 hours I was too sick to know anything and the rest of the time has been the weekend, so who is going to call a doctor these days then?
Do I match the "official" symptoms list on the PA Dept of Health website? Absolutely, exactly, perfectly, and completely!
Am I still contagious? If it *IS* swine flu, then the answer is YES!

At this point there is no point in going to the doctor. I'm recovering, albeit very slowly. To find out if this is actually Swine flu or just the cold from hell would be interesting but useless now.

I've been "UP", (in a chair rather than bed) for 6 hours now, my longest stint since Wednesday. Standing and walking are still a struggle. I'm wondering if I can safely drive, since concentration is an issue.

I guess I'll go back to bed and think about it.

Stitcher's Blog Candy!

Tammy is having a Blogoversary and she had four WONDERFUL blog candy packages being given away. This is a picture of one of them.

Just click on the picture and it will take you to the post to enter the draw. Then check out the rest of her blog for some beautiful stitching pictures.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

This is going to be wonderful- be sure to check it out!

It's that time of year again

The cold from hell. Two days of sleeping round the clock- really! Now I am so out of whack I don't know if its day or night- except it's dark out and DH and DS are sleeping so it must be night. And I'm, finally, for the first time since Wednesday afternoon, completely awake.

The good news? Well, the killer sinus headaches are finally controlled (notice I said controlled, not eliminated) by Comtrex, the ribs are only sore when I actually cough and not all the time, and, when I want to be, I can be vertical for more than 2 minutes! (Not sure how *much* longer, but I've definitely done more than 2 minutes.) Puffs with lotion are strategically stationed by the bed, the recliner- YES! I sat up and watched TV tonight for several hours!!!- and next to the computer here.

I have been WAY too out of it to stitch, tat, or do anything crafty, but I did get some reading done. Two more days of meds, fluids and rest and I should be good-to-go for school by Monday- which is fine, except I will be missing a BIG party tomorrow. :(

It happens every year: the back-to-school-get-sick-from-the-kids-germs episode. At least it's here and (Please!!!) soon to be over.

Hope everyone else is feeling better than me and having a good weekend!

Catching up on stuff

Here's my first book for the 10 Book Challenge.

I have chosen 4 more so far:

• Mona Lisa in Camelot by Margaret Leslie Davis
• The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
• Inked Up by Terri Thayer
• Persuasion by Jane Austen

The rest I will add to the list on my sidebar as I choose them.



















Not a great picture...sorry. My sidebar needs updating- I am working on motif #3 for the 25 motif tatting challenge. This one I'm doing with one of the Finca #12 variegated threads I got this summer at the quilt shop. I am using my new silver shuttle- and I am probably not going to use it again, except as a pendant. Etha made a comment when I posted the picture of the shuttle that the pick looked "fierce"- well, she was right. If I poke my finger while tatting, which I do frequently, I BLEED! However, I must also admit that I twice so far in this motif have had to un-tat to fix mistakes and I have NEVER found it so easy as with this shuttle- due, again, to the "fierce" pick. So, a conundrum- do I continue to use it in case of mistakes, while risking bleeding?













Operation Write Home (formerly Cards for Heroes) has their new custom stamps available! You can order them from Imagine Stamps or from StampXpress. There are several stamp layouts and designs to choose from- this is the one I ordered. Don't forget- the deadline for Christmas cards is November 1.

Finally, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to decide which digital scrapbooking program to get. I had it narrowed down to three: Creative Memories' Storybook Creator Plus, Lasting Impressions' Memory Mixer and Polaroid's My Memories Suite. However, even though the CM program seems to be the easiest to use, I have to drop that from the list. CM has the program set up so you can only load it on one computer- and since I alternate equally between my desktop at home and my laptop for weekends away, the summer at the shore, etc., it would mean buying the program twice- which, as it is also the most expensive of the 3 programs is out of the question!

My goal is to create a digital album of my precious family heritage pictures. Doing this would allow me to send/give it to all my cousins and then they could keep it on a disc, print it out, whatever they chose. I want it to be a real album, pages with journaling and embellishments. I tried it in Photoshop Elements but I lack the time and patience to master the program.

So, if you have used either of these programs and have an opinion, please let me know- I need to make a decision and I can use all the help and advice I can get.

Time to get started on the laundry, grocery list etc, and then GO EAGLES!!!

Michelle Zindorf class today!

Project #1.























Project #2
























Project #3

I've been crazy busy with the first full week of school, the dentist, hospital tests, etc. I needed the fun we had today- and we had a LOT. Michelle is SOOO talented and really funny and the class was GREAT!!!

PS- these are NOT pictures of the class models- they are scans of *MY* finished cards! Hard to believe!!!

Playing For Change Explained

There is a PBS Special about "Playing for Change" that is currently showing on PBS stations- check your local listings. Here in Philadelphia it is on tonight!

Little Girl throws ball back

TOO cute!!!

10 Book Challenge

I found this at StitchBitch's blog- and followed her link over to Reading and Stitching- obviously a blogger after my own heart! Click on the picture to go directly to the challenge post.

The challenge is to choose and list 10 books you will read by the end of the year.

I'm posting this tonight, but will have to wait a day or two to edit it and add my list- I wanted to get this "out there" as the deadline to sign up is tomorrow.

I can tell you that Book #1 will be: Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb. Amazon delivered it the other day and I'll be starting as soon as I finish As The World Churns.

Anyone else want to read along?

Operation Write Home- new name for Cards for Heroes

Cards for Heroes is now Operation Write Home.

You Raise Me Up

Here's to the Heroes Tribute

Wonderful Day at Notre Dame

Clearly I haven't spent much time posting lately- I've been kept really busy. In addition to the sightseeing around Chicago and NW Indiana, there were family activities, like my niece's show, back-to-school night (wow- is that WEIRD from the seats now!), a cook-out at the neighbors'; things like that filled my week there.

Sunday was particularly wonderful. DB drove us to South Bend to visit the campus at Notre Dame. One of my favorite former students is now a senior there and he generously spent several hours with us, giving us a campus tour and telling us all the lore and legend.

















First stop- because it is closest to the visitor's parking lot!- was the famous football stadium. Tightly closed, we didn't see much, although later in the day on the other side, we could see the famous tunnel and the center of the field, but only from outside.

















For me, the Grotto, a scale duplicate of the one at Lourdes, was the most sacred moment. There is a rock from the Lourdes grotto embedded in the wall here, and to be able to pray while touching Lourdes was very moving.

There is a strong sense of the Catholicism of Notre Dame all around it, but it is a joyful and wondrous faith sense. This is clearly a place which speaks to the heart and encourages living the faith in the best sense.
























Here's a picture of Steve outside the main building- with the famous golden dome. I enjoyed the day the most from seeing how he has grown both as a person and an intellectual during his time here. It was a total delight to listen to him, knowing that he had really stretched himself and become someone of great talent and skill through his studies.



















My last picture is of "Touchdown Jesus", more correctly known as "Christ, the Teacher". The TJ name comes from the fact that the top of the mural (which adorns the side of the Hesburgh Library) can be seen over the top of the scoreboard from inside the stadium- and the hand position in the mural makes the nickname obvious. It's a nice mixture of religion and whimsey!

After this visit I can certainly understand the maniacal allegiance of Notre Dame graduates to this wonderful school. The campus is gorgeous, the tradition rich, and the environment powerful. I still don't get the attachment of Irish Catholics who've never set foot in South Bend, but can forgive their insanity a little, having seen what they imagine.

It will never replace my affection for my own Alma Mater, LaSalle University, and the wonderful Christian Brothers, whose charism and efforts created for me a marvelous undergraduate experience and left me with a lifetime of thought and much of my inspiration as a teacher. But Sunday might have been enough to make me take a peak, with interest, at a ND football game some Saturday. AND.... I even bought a jacket- and will WEAR it, lol!

School meetings all day today, and the students arrive tomorrow, so it's seriously back to work now for me. Time to get ready for the (YUCK!) early morning alarm clock tomorrow.

Clearly I've been busy!!!

Along the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago.



















Along the shore of Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park.



















Having lunch in Chicago near Wrigley Field.



















Touring Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Oak Park, Illinois



















Sitting on the back deck reading and enjoying the view.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?